How common is raspberry beetle?

[Emmeline]

I have just taken on an allotment and subscribed to Growing your own for the 6 free raspberry canes. I have since been reading about raspberry beetle and am quite worried about it! I think it would put me off raspberries forever if I saw a maggot in one I was eating!
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I have read that autumn fruiting varieties are less susceptible so I am wondering whether to only plant those (advantage is they will fruit this year - I am impatient). Or is it possible to control without using chemical sprays?

[Alison]

Where are you, apparently it's very common in some parts if the country but I've never seen it.

[Aberdeenplotter]

Very common is the short reply. I seemed to get rid of mine by putting down a 6" layer of bark around my canes. That seems to indicate that they overwinter in the ground below the bushes.so something to consider.

[Guest]

I would go with autumn fruiting until you have grown your own for a while
Once you get used to wasps, maggots and earwigs in your fruit, whitefly and caterpillars on your brassicas, maggots and earwigs again with your peas and beans etc. etc. Unfortunately it is all part and parcel of growing veg. quite often they aren't a problem and you might only get the odd one, but it depends how squirmy you are.

Welcome to the vine

[FB.]

Raspberry beetles are very common here; there's no avoiding them. In mid-summer, going near raspberries is like sitting next to a flea-ridden cat (you'll find several beetles crawling on you - including some small bites!).

Due to raspberry beetle I only grow autumn fruiting raspberries, but I leave some canes unpruned each winter so I can have a chance of some summer raspberries - hoping that there'll be enough left after the raspberry beetle grubs have eaten their share.

Raspberry beetle-damaged fruits can be recognised - they seem to be darker than normal, with some shrivelled/sunken areas and a few pinpoint holes in them.

[chrisdb]

I never used to see it much in Nottingham, but in the last couple of years there suddenly seem to be quite a lot of beetles. Even the autumn fruiting raspberries aren't completely immune - in my last house I only had autumn fruiting raspberries, and these were also attacked.

I guess maybe it's moving northward as the climate gets a little milder?

[Aberdeenplotter]

It's been up here for generations Chris. It's probably moving south to get warmer

[WendyC]

Perhaps this map might help:

https://data.nbn.org.uk/Taxa/NHMSYS0020151555

[Aberdeenplotter]

now would you believe that. There aren't any in Aberdeen

[Emmeline]

Thank you all! It's wonderful to get so many replies so quickly

I am in SE London, I will add that info to my profile. It seems a shame to not use free plants so I may plant them away from my autumn fruiting raspberries and hope for the best. The mulch idea sounds good, I have read that hoeing around the base of the bushes helps to get rid of them too.

We had an indian moth infestation in our kitchen not long ago so anything maggot like gives me the creeps!

[planetologist]

I would echo Norfolkgrey (what's in a county?). The first thing I thought when seeing the thread title is "I don't have a problem with that at all, let's see what others say about that". But then when you mentioned maggots I had to admit that when I pick my (autumn) raspberries I always look inside each one and chuck the odd one. In fact, on the map WendyC linked to, I live in one of the "positive" areas. I never do eat them, but I'm told that maggots are good food, high in protein. As usual they have much more to fear from us than we from them.

[boundtothesoil]

I know I'm a bit late here, but as an alternative to an autumn fruiting variety, you could try a very early summer fruiting one. I've found that these tend to show much less damage than mid season varieties, presumably because the adult beetles don't get their act together quickly enough.

[Two_Sheds]

autumn fruiting varieties are less susceptible

They are, because they ripen after the egg-laying season. Some of the early autumn rasps (and blackberries too) might have maggots in, but mostly they don't.
I only grow autumns, because of the maggot

[marchogaeth]

What an interesting thread. It's definitely made me think again about getting summer fruiting ones to go alongside my autumn canes. The map says none specifically where I live but presumably the dots are where people have bothered to find out what was happening to their fruit - a bit like the blight maps. I can't say I've seen maggots in the raspberries, are the infection rates affected by altitude, does anyone know?

[Penellype]

No idea about altitude. I'm in an area with few dots, but last year my Autumn Bliss rasps were riddled with maggots. This year I've grown the yellow All Gold (also autumn fruiting) and not seen a single maggot. The plants have just been transplanted and that could account for it - the Autumn Bliss had been in the same pot for 2 years. The surface of their pot was mulched with cocoashell, but not very deeply.